Jason and the Monkey

Jason is the first baby since Fiona to have an animal instinct.  Jason is scared of a certain stuffed monkey in my room. 

The other funny thing about Jason is that he can't roll over.  He can crawl (even up stairs and onto the small trampoline) and get to a sitting position from his tummy, but he can't roll from his back to his front. And since he couldn't get away from the monkey, he was stuck! 

The monkey doesn't want to be scary. He can't help it that I accidentally did some experimenting with baby communication and facial expressions.  Genevieve and I were making scared faces when Jason would look at us and then look at the monkey.  We didn't say anything, we just looked scared.

Sorry the picture is blurry

He really isn't scared of the monkey anymore now that we have spent time playing with the monkey.

See the slobber on the monkey's nose?

But we sure had fun at Jason's expense!

Easter

Girls in Easter Hats

Both Mark and Genevieve are sick today.  I was home alone with the four younger kids all day yesterday, so you know I had to wait until the last minute to boil and dye eggs.  I may be adventurous when it comes to art projects with preschoolers, but dying eggs with them with no one to back me up? No way.

I dyed three dozen eggs, but I realized at the last minute we had no vinegar and only a few colors.  I had a fussy baby in one arm and we can just say, the eggs weren't pretty.

Started hunting for eggs without a basket.

Mark and the girls got home from Ferndale just before midnight, so none of us got much sleep... and I was up for about an hour scrubbing puke out of the girl's carpet.  The boys and Evie hid the eggs while the rest of us watched The Easter Carol.

I found all the missing shoes

 I gave them a stern lecture about Jesus, the empty tomb, and candy. 

The dye didn't stick without the vinegar

We ate all the jelly beans last week because no one wanted to wait for Easter.  Maybe they thought I was kidding when I said there wasn't going to be any candy.  And when the bickering broke out about who got a head start on egg hunting and who had too many and who didn't boil enough eggs, that solidified my views on the way we celebrate.

I didn't even bother to turn the eggs so that the dye covered the whole egg.

 Okay, so we did have a "basket of grace" at the end with a chocolate bunny for everyone.

Mark spent the rest of the afternoon planting his baby trees (while sick) with the boys help.  He is also getting ready to leave for three days for work because this is that time of year.  When he gets back, I'm heading to Ferndale for a weekend of vaulting! It's going to be a crazy week.  I think we need more than just a basket of grace...

Milestones

So, Jason LOVES food...

...but no jelly beans for him!  This week he started crawling so fast and within a day of fast crawling, he learned how to crawl up the stairs.

Then he cut his first tooth and pulled himself to standing on the same day!

That day happened to be the same day we decided that Ian would indeed be attending high school next year.  So many milestones, so little time.

Kai

For all the bad things Kai does (and don't get me started on those)...

... he is pretty good with the baby.  As long as he knows where the baby is I mean.  But that really is the only thing I like about the dog.

St Paddy's Snakes

I had a few little tokens for my leprechauns this morning.

The boys got mustaches, the girls got little shamrock bracelets.  And then we moved on.... (no gold hunt, sorry kids, I couldn't force my heart to do anything fun or light-hearted).

And then Ian found a snake.  Strange coincidence, no? If I were a more paranoid person that believed in signs and we found the first snake on St. Patrick's Day, I would believe something was afoot.

(he's getting so handsome)

My wonderful kids have great ideas (they must get that from me).  Shane said, "Wouldn't it be funny if we found the Crocodile Hunter toy and took a picture of it with the snake?"  Fiona found the toy and Ian posed him:

 ...and then we finished up all the normal things we do on normal days and had corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes.  The potatoes were cooked by Ian and they perfectly complimented our meat.

I can't stand the excitement

Really.  This weekend has been jam-packed with crazy.

1. Jason started crawling in earnest. He can now get to objects.
2. Our power went out in the middle of the night necessitating an emergency transfer of chicks into the house for warmth and construction of a Kai-proof barrier to keep them from chickicide.
3. Some other family drama that I am not going to write about, but seriously people, pray hard about it. So hard that if you only have the faith the size of a mustard seed, still pray. I need warriors here.
4. Daniel stuffed his ear canals with flowers so he wouldn't have to hear the birds singing.  I tried pulling them out with tweezers, but they were compacted against his eardrum.  This morning I used a combination of hydrogen peroxide to soften the earwax and water pressure in a syringe to eject the flowers.  Thank goodness we avoided another medical bill! 

Kid Communication

I've banned a few words and added a new phrase to the Downen lexicon.

Shane builds a can telephone

One word I've banned is the easy come back, "So?"  As in "so what?"  I've asked the kids to think for a moment and use an acceptable substitution such as, "I disagree" or "I agree, however" and Mark's favorite "regardless."

Another is "Wait, what?" When a certain daughter of mine uses that phrase, she appears unintelligent, and we can't have that, can we? I've asked her to wait a moment to think of a complete sentence before speaking.  Such as, "Who is that in the picture before me, mother dearest?"

It worked.

The new phrase is Dead End.  This is what I say when I hear bickering back and forth.  All day long I hear these guys debating topics that are going no where.  When I say, "Dead End," they have to shut their mouths like the end of the road.

Did I mention we've turned off screens for awhile?  Now I can't remember why I thought it was a good idea...